Ferrum College - The Ferrum Newsstand

For immediate release:	Released by: Diane Hailey
March 12, 2001	(540) 365-4302/ dhailey@ferrum.edu
American “Living Legend” Address Peril and Promises of Public Service

Linda Chavez

Linda Chavez, the only Bush administration Cabinet nominee to voluntarily step out of the nomination process, is scheduled to give the closing address for the fourth annual Ferrum College Women’s Leadership Conference. The conference, which features a wide variety of women in leadership positions, will be held on the Ferrum College campus March 20-21. The Chavez address, “The Perils and Promises of Public Service,” will be held in Vaughn Chapel at 6:30 p.m. on March 21.
Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a non-profit public policy research organization in Washington, DC. She also writes a weekly syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country. She is the author of Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation (Basic Books 1991), which the Denver Post described as a book that “should explode the stereotypes about Hispanics that have clouded the minds of patronizing liberals and xenophobic conservatives alike.” In 2000, Chavez was honored by the Library of Congress as a “Living Legend” for her contributions to America’s cultural and historical legacy.

      In 1992, she was elected by the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Chavez was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986. From 1984-1986, she was a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
     Chavez has held a number of appointed positions, among them Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985), and Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985).
     Her topics will include the role of media in politics, private decision-making in the public spotlight, public expectations of females vs. males, and personal and professional sacrifice as the result of working toward the greater good.
The conference is free and open to the public. For advance registration, please contact Lydia Odell at (540) 365-4267.
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For More Information on the Web :
Center for Equal Opportunity
Women's Leadership Conference Press Release
Women's Leadership Conference Web Site
   -Registration Information
   -Full Conference Schedule and Description

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